March 2017 - Grow Schools

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How can social media impact your school’s brand, enrollment efforts and communications to your community? Are you up-to-date on the latest social media platforms and best practices for reaching your target audiences? How’s your overall post engagement looking?

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With the bill introduction deadline ending two weeks ago, the California legislature is now beginning to hold its first hearings on individual pieces of legislation. There were more than 2,600 bills and resolutions introduced, and several of those bills could impact charter schools. Below is a short summary for some of those bills.
AB 318 by Assemblywoman Caballero would require certificated employees and each pupil in certain independent study programs to communicate either in person, or by a live visual connection at least once per week.
AB 406 by Assemblyman McCarty would prohibit a charter school from contracting with a for-profit company for managing or operating a charter school.
AB 950 by Assemblywoman Rubio would allow a renewal of a charter petition that has been approved by the State Board of Education (SBE) on appeal to be heard either by the district that originally denied the petition or the SBE. It would also expand the use of “state-wide” benefit charter schools.
AB 1182 by Assemblyman Low is an independent study spot bill. A spot bill is a measure that has not yet been fully drafted, but has language in it that states the author’s intent.
AB 1224 by Assemblywoman Weber would create a pilot program allowing 5 County Offices of Education, picked by the SBE, to authorize 10 charter schools each throughout the state. CMOs with multiple schools would be able to apply to the program also.
AB 1360 by Assemblyman Bonta is a charter school admission and due process spot bill.
AB 1478 by Assemblyman Jones-Sawyer would apply the Brown Act, California Public Records Act and the 1974 Political Reform Act to charter schools.
AB 1528 by Assemblyman Acosta would extend the provisions allowing a virtual charter school to serve a student that has moved out of their geographical area during the school year to 1/1/21.
AB 1536 by Assemblyman Grayson is a charter school spot bill.
SB 806 by Senator Glazer is a charter school governance and oversight spot bill.
SB 808 by Senator Mendoza abolishes the appeal to the county office of education or SBE for denials and revocations of charter schools unless the county office finds that the district made a procedural violation during the hearing. It also allows a charter school petition to be denied if the district makes a finding that approving the charter would have a negative fiscal impact on the district.
To read more about these bills, visit the California Legislative Information website.

NPR’s education news site, nprEd , recently posted an article giving a rundown on charter schools, namely what ARE they and how are they different from other private and public schools?
Despite ever-growing numbers of charter schools in the country (3.1 million students currently enrolled in charter schools across 43 states), most Americans have no idea how charter schools work. The 2014 PDK/Gallup poll on public attitudes toward education found that while 63% of those asked favored charter schools (without a definition of what a charter is), 48% of those surveyed didn’t know they were public, and 57% thought they charged tuition.
The article covers how charter schools work, how they’re funded, who runs them, and whether they’re better than their public school competition. Read the full story.